Tim Hortons Shareholder Pushes for Change

By

Karen Johnson And

Ben Dummett

Updated May 1, 2013 6:47 p.m. ET

TORONTO—Highfields Capital Management LP, a Boston-based hedge fund, is pushing Canadian coffee-and-doughnut chain Tim Hortons Inc. to end its expansion in the U.S. and buy back more shares in an effort to boost the company's profit and stock price.

Highfields' activism is the latest in a series of moves by American hedge funds that have taken aim at well-known companies north of the border. Last year, Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management LP successfully installed a slate of its directors at Canadian Pacific...